What If RFK Had Become President?

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  • Posted By: tatoo @ 06/05/2008 8:34:03 AM

    Fearful of rioting blacks and protesting hippies?
    Have another toke, Evan.
    We were sick and tired of their looting and lack of respect for the law- which they ALL had an equal opportunity to change.

  • Posted By: jmcc6621 @ 06/05/2008 8:33:31 AM

    The level of hatred in this country is at amazing levels. It's scary and very sad. No matter who is President half of the country hates him or her with a passion the second they're sworn in and will do everything possible to destroy them. The founding fathers would be highly disappointed.

  • Posted By: sometime reader @ 06/05/2008 8:23:55 AM

    Is it not possible, for Evan Thomas or anyone at Newsweek, to write a single article without including a trashing our president? I, and probabily half of the readers of this tribute, simply stop reading when it turns out to be another piece pushing their hate-Bush agenda.

    • Posted By: Believer in Truth @ 06/05/2008 8:31:05 AM

      Hear, Hear! It can't just be a historical perspective, Oh No! Let use this and ANY opprtunity to BASH Bush! I Know I'll Write an Article About a Beloved Young Man Struck Down in His Prime and then I'll Turn It to a Hate Inspiring Tale of the Republicans! The Left media just kills me and given an opprtunity they'll kill ALL of US! They preach we should be Open and Accepting of everyone's way of life...except those people over there, they should be loathed and stoned in the town square for their way of life...oh speaking of getting stoned, I think I will and then I'll write an article to tell everyone how wonderful life would be with the Christians, and the Republicans and the people that don't think and believe the way me and my friends do...

  • Posted By: Rudy1234 @ 06/05/2008 8:30:42 AM

    Righ on. The difference in the concerns and thoughts of the old politicians to the new ones who communicate shallow concepts and prejuduce by sound bites. The bankrupt left hides its weelness by clothing it in romantic idealism and the far right which does not understand that unless they contribute to the pot that redistributes and supports all, then the disadvantaged would come up and take all from them. Governments are to regulate an acceptable level of robbery for tredistribution by means of taxation lest the poor would not be controlled and theft and mugging on an individual scale would become the theme of the day, inviding anarchy. This is what the GOP has failed to take into understand. A Philosopher King would be a greater virtue than a democracy, a rule by the whims of the majority of the masses.

  • Posted By: jmcc6621 @ 06/05/2008 8:27:46 AM

    The hatred in this country is at amazing levels right now. It's scary! No patriotism and no sense of honor or loyalty for anything or anyone. Instead of bickering about the Kennedy's, or Nixon, or even GW Bush, all of us need to find a way to quell the hatred and ask the right questions. All you have to do is get elected President and instantly half the country hates your guts with a passion. Everyone i listen to hates the other guy or gal. No disagreements. No discussion. Just hatred. It's very sad.

  • Posted By: benluclar @ 06/02/2008 10:38:38 AM

    My biggest ''what if'' at this point in time, after having lived that one already in the 1960s, is WHAT IF we have an inexperienced, unseasoned, no-first-hand-knowledge President elected in November.
    That is on my to-do list for today's biggest problem.
    Move on, Newsweek. Kennedys are being planted in minds of idealists right now and gearing them toward an association with Obama.
    I don't think so..................

    • Posted By: THE RAVEN @ 06/02/2008 5:51:55 PM

      Comparing Kennedy to Obama is idiotic. Kennedy was white, and regardless of how he APPEARED to be open-minded, and willing to embrace, and bring together the entire nation, as soon as soon racists, power-monger living in his time started whinning about blacks and women, he would turn and show his true colors in an instant.

      • Posted By: Captiva @ 06/05/2008 4:40:49 AM

        You stupidass people kill me! You are all so friggin stupid! I LIVED through the 60's Why oh why do you stupid ass people say things like that? Bobby Kennedy was one of the most non-racist people that ever lived. He tried his best to help heal our nation, to bring blacks and whites together. To help the poor, the sick, the weak and downtrodden. He would have made a wonderful president and our country would have been so much better off for it!

        • Posted By: mspidge @ 06/05/2008 8:19:06 AM

          Its all too deep in here for me, one needs hip waders in here

      • Posted By: Captiva @ 06/05/2008 4:42:59 AM

        And another thing. All this stuff about Marilyn Monroe; WE have NO IDEA what happened or didn't happen!
        And today of all days when my heart is breaking for a man that was shot down in his prime. People please shut up with the insults to a wonderful man that died 40 years ago!

    • Posted By: Mimi13 @ 06/02/2008 7:17:40 PM

      So, if faced with a choice between a candidate who had served 5 terms in the U.S. House, 10 years in the Senate, was ambassador to both England and Russia, and Secretary of State AGAINST a candidate who had served 8 years in his state legislature, one term in the U.S. House, was defeated in a bid for the Senate, you would ??? obviously ??? vote for the former (James Buchanan) rather than Abraham Lincoln. IS resume really everything? (Yes, I know Lincoln ran against Douglas, the person who beat him in the Senate race. I???m just being illustrative.)

      It would be hard to find a better pre-presidential resume incorporating hands-on experience in both foreign and domestic policy and mastery of the executive branch and the bureaucracy than Herbert Hoover: Directed aid programs to post-war Europe and was so efficient and comprehensive that he was named one of the 10 most important Americans. As Secretary of Commerce, he took over functions that were being neglected by other departments, promoted U.S. business interests overseas, revised government operations using new technology and instigated the first disaster relief program when the Mississippi flooded. Yet, when the Depression struck, all he offered were protective tariffs (which made things worse) and volunteerism.

      Woodrow Wilson, on the other hand, was an academic, an elitist, a constitutional scholar and president of Princeton. He served two years as governor of NJ. That???s the extent of his public service before being elected president. Yet, he managed to create the Federal Reserve, income tax (I don???t like it either, but it replaced regressive sales and property taxes ??? considered a progressive policy); got anti-trust legislation passed; delayed the U.S. involvement in World War and when he did insert the U.S. into war, it was with his ???14 Points??? a clear declaration of what we were fighting over and how we would evaluate a victory. Post war, he was dedicated to the League of Nations, which, of course, the Congress did not have the vision to enact. Wilson, however, did win the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts. Turns out Wilson had pretty sophisticated views for someone with no hands-on policy experience.

      Nixon had a strong resume and had a fatally flawed presidency.
      Truman had a relatively weak resume and had a strong presidency.

      Is choosing a president really the same as hiring a bookkeeper?

  • Posted By: kapost01 @ 06/05/2008 8:01:15 AM

    The urination comment below demonstrates the limitations of democracy; ie.any idiot has the right to vote. These are the same people who gave us 8 years of G.W. Bush.
    RFK's legacy deeply matters to me and perhaps even more. He was a man with strong cultural roots, true courage, convictions, passion for human rights, someone who could have made a lot of difference as president.

    • Posted By: Believer in Truth @ 06/05/2008 8:08:13 AM

      Strong cultiral ROOTS! Where do you get that? His family fortune was the result of a BOOTLEGGING Father! I suppose in 20 years while be awarding sainthood to a LA street crack cocaine dealer's son based on "Strong Cultural Roots" Get your facts clear before you OPEN your Mouths!

  • Posted By: adirondack_1 @ 06/05/2008 7:17:07 AM

    War, race and poverty, sounds eerily like a campaign ad.

    The Russians or better the communist expansion was behind the politics of the era of JFK and Bobby. There is a huge difference between the ideologies at play then and today. The only similarity is that the struggle to expand an ideology globally is shared by independant dictators whose cultures and religions stand in the way of unification for their cause. Luckily.

    Race, a matter today of how to break the cycle of the uneducated parenting of tomorrows disadvantaged. It really isn't a race issue but one of responsibility.

    Poverty, the quick fix is always longed for and the promise of a better life is a real vote getter. Socialist reforms appeal only to those who recieve the benefits while government administration of taxes has always turned out to be so bloated (corrupt)and slow to respond to change that it always fails. Bushs' tax cuts have unfunded a great deal of corrupt and bloated projects while creating a responsibility for the tax dollars that are distributed. Who hates accountability? Just look at who is belching all the corruption accusations and jumping through flaming hoops to get their tax and spend ideology back in place. Tax legitimately and spend frugally. I want to know where my money goes and the ability to say no if the money is wasted on fat bloated government agencies that fail to operate efficiently.

    • Posted By: Leen13 @ 06/05/2008 7:44:16 AM

      Hmmmm, and an illegal, unnecessary war is a great way to "responsibly" spend tax dollars? That's a great argument pal...

  • Posted By: IAMROUGHDRAFT @ 06/05/2008 7:25:41 AM

    Every day since I was a 16 yr. old worker for Bobby, I have thought about how he was fighting for me every day...a pooor white , inspired back then and now I am a "bitter" 55 year old ready to give this Demoracy thing one more try......McCain is third term Bush and as crazy.....so.....I am proud to vote for Obama and I though of Bobby when I made my choice at thepoll.

    I'm willin' to roll the dice one more time......If I get fooled agian....I just won't play any more.

  • Posted By: william080886 @ 06/05/2008 7:11:42 AM

    I'm 53 years old, but I know vietnam would have been different with him.

  • Posted By: william080886 @ 06/05/2008 7:10:46 AM

    I'm 53 years old, but I know vietnam wouldn't have turned out the same.

  • Posted By: rab015 @ 06/05/2008 6:12:04 AM

    It appears we missed out on God or the perfect president according to Thomas. Maybe he would cleaned up the Vietnam mess his overrated brother started. What if Robert Kennedy didn't bite the mafia's hand that got his brother elected(he may still be alive). What if his father wasn't a Nazi sympathizer or a rum runner for the mob. "What if's" are for people who have too much time on their hands

  • Posted By: dieselndust @ 06/05/2008 5:40:35 AM

    Well said George.

    As a staunch conservative libertarian, I also believe that we are Americans first, last, and always.

    I care not if any citizen our great nation is black, white, purple, plaid, or pink-and-blue checkered...as long as they have arrived here on legal terms.

    We should all follow the example of Martin Luther King Jr., and tear down all barriers...not just the racial ones.

    Go Bless The USA.

  • Posted By: wblk3 @ 06/05/2008 5:36:35 AM

    It's funny that Hillary Clinton's comment on RFK assassination along with Huckabee's joke on Obama being shot at, your article on this page with Obama's picture along side of it, clearly sends a message that maybe some sicko out there will follow through with an assassination. Pretty sad.

  • Posted By: gccanavo @ 06/05/2008 5:32:43 AM

    The comment by one ClaraM best illustrates what has happened to this country as a result of Robert Kennedy's assassination 40 years ago. The election of Nixon in 1968 and the continued successful ploy of the Republican Party to divide our country into us vs. them, continues to produce thinking and beliefs as displayed by ClaraM. We must remember that all leaders are subjected to the same temptations as all human beings. We should not elect them to a high office because they appear to be pious; rather we should elect them because of our belief that they should try to improve the human conditions for the citizens of our country. Certainly, the Kennedy Family is far from perfect. Perhaps ClaraM should recall what Christ said when he was asked to throw the first stone: "He among you who is without sin, let him cast the first stone." Haven't the Kennedy Family suffered enough in the service of our country? Joe Kennedy killed during World War II, John Kennedy and Robert Kennedy assassinated while serving as president and U.S. senator, respectively. Why many of us like ClaraM must resort to that kind of thinking that keeps dividing us into us vs. them, Red States vs. Blue States, whites vs. blacks, and so on. That is the true legacy of this country in the last 40 years. How sad indeed!
    George C. Canavos
    Williamsburg, VA

  • Posted By: dieselndust @ 06/05/2008 5:26:43 AM

    Your watered-down sense of Wilsonian Fascism is downright comical. Goodie for you - You've done a great job of making yourself completely overwhelmed with self-congratulatory treason in the name of progressive politics.

    The only thing that would have happened if Bobby Kennedy would have lived to be elected would have been the Carter Administration, eight years earlier.

    "And another thing": As much as I adore the memory of Marilyn Monroe, she has nothing to do with American politics...certainly not as much as the fact that the Kennedys are the most corrupt family in American history, and that their fortune was earned through the production and distribution of illicit alcohol (do any of you idiots remember that time in history called prohibition?).

    The Kennedys do indeed share something special with Ms. Monroe: The selective revision of history.

    As usual, those pesky little facts tend to disrupt the revisionist history of the left.

    Get a clue.

  • Posted By: dieselndust @ 06/05/2008 5:24:46 AM

    Your watered-down sense of Wilsonian Fascism is downright comical. Goodie for you - You've done a great job of making yourself completely overwhelmed with self-congratulatory treason in the name of progressive politics.

    The only thing that would have happened if Bobby Kennedy would have lived to be elected would have been the Carter Administration; eight years earlier.

    "And another thing": As much as I adore the memory of Marilyn Monroe, she has nothing to do with American politics...certainly not as much as the fact that the Kennedys are the most corrupt family in American history, and that their fortune was earned through the production and distribution of illicit alcohol (do any of you idiots remember that time in history called prohibition?).

    As usual, those pesky little facts tend to disrupt the revisionist history of the left.

    Get a clue.

  • Posted By: amerikalars @ 06/05/2008 3:30:07 AM

    I share in many of the emotions which are mentioned about RFK. But I have many times wondered, while there are so many theories of JFK's killing, none or very few about RFK's. Does one not find it at least as unlikely that Sirhan Sirhan was acting alone as was Oswald? Sinhan Sirhan is still alive, and it would seem this has never been pursued. Why?

  • Posted By: ClaraM @ 06/05/2008 3:27:43 AM

    We would have been in deep doo-doo, or deep whoopie.!!

  • Posted By: ClaraM @ 06/05/2008 3:17:19 AM

    I was a teenage when JFK and RFK were assasinated, and I grew up listening to my parents talk about how the Kennedy Clan made thier money illegally, how they cheated on their wives, and I personally saw a drugged up Marilyn Monroe sing on public TV Happy Birthday the President whom she was sleeping with, what an embarrasment to poor Jackie Kennedy, and to top it all it was public knowledge that she was also sleeping with RFK. I also remember the talk in our family at the time how only the Kennedy's could get away with murder, referring to {Chapaquitic- most likely misspelled } incident. In more recent news we also have rape and murder, how can we trust the Kennedy's again.? We don't and won't. When polititians reffer to Kennedy I always wonder why. I guess we only remember what we what to.

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